There has conventionally been known a technique of temporarily storing, in the memory (e.g., hard disk) of a data processing apparatus (e.g., image forming apparatus), image data read by a scanner, or image data prepared by bitmapping PDL data sent from a host computer via a network. According to this technique, image data of an arbitrary document is repetitively read out from a memory and printed out.
Some image forming apparatuses of this type can connect a finisher having finishing functions such as stapling, punching, folding, and bookbinding functions.
There is also proposed an image forming apparatus in which the settings of the finishing functions, and job process conditions (e.g., double-sided printing) can be saved as job information together with input image data in the memory (e.g., hard disk) of the apparatus. The function of the data processing apparatus (e.g., image forming apparatus) is also called a box function. By using the box function, a plurality of storage areas (to be referred to as “boxes” hereinafter) can be so assigned as to be used for each user or each department. There is also proposed a method of designating an arbitrary box by the user and printing image data desired by the user under process conditions desired by the user (see, e.g., patent reference 1).
Patent Reference 1: Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 11-146115